What's the different between Health Literacy and Health Information Literacy?
Health Literacy
Health Information Literacy
Health Literacy is the ability to read, understand, and act on health care information. Health literacy problems affect people from all backgrounds, especially those with chronic health problems. You cannot tell by looking who has low health literacy!
Health Information Literacy is the ability to recognize a health information need, search and evaluate information sources to retrieve relevant information and use the information to make good health decisions.
Health literacy is foundational to ensure the health care you receive will have a good outcome. Yet health literacy cannot be taken for granted. Consider this these statistics from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy Survey (NAAL, 2003), conducted by the National Institute for Literacy and the National Center for Education Statistics:
- 66% of United States Adults age 60 and over have inadequate or marginal literacy skills.
- 50% of welfare recipients read below fifth grade level.
- 50% of Hispanic Americans and 40% of African Americans have reading problems.
It is especially difficult for less literate patients to fill out intake forms, enroll in insurance programs, for which they may be eligible, get services once enrolled, follow medical instructions or give informed consent. Prescription labels and self-care instructions are among the most important written materials patients receive.
Why is health literacy important?
Only 13 percent of adults have Proficient health literacy, according to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Fourteen percent of adults (30 million people) have Below Basic health literacy. These adults were more likely to report their health as poor (42 percent) and are more likely to lack health insurance (28 percent) than adults with Proficient health literacy. Low literacy has been linked to poor health outcomes such as higher rates of hospitalization and less frequent use of preventive services. Both of these outcomes are associated with higher health care costs.
Who is at risk?
Populations most likely to experience low health literacy are older adults, racial and ethnic minorities, people with less than a high school degree or GED certificate, people with low income levels, non-native speakers of English, and people with compromised health status. Education, language, culture, access to resources, and age are all factors that affect a person's health literacy skills.
What can librarians and educators do to meet the needs of consumers/patrons who struggle with health literacy?
Medical professionals are responsible for assisting patients to make sure their health information is adequately and appropriately provided, and understood, in the practioner's office. Librarians can help support health literacy for patrons by providing access to reliable sources of information. Some good starting points are:
MedlinePlus, a collaboration of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus )
Another possibility suggested by Kovacs (2004) is library-provided web-based instruction for patrons who wish to utilize health information websites. In this way, instruction can be tailored to the learner group, and address questions and issues as they arise. Note that this does not involve teaching patrons about medical issues, but how to utilize an information tool.
Information professionals who may be addressing health information needs should be aware of health literacy issues. If you are interested, view this video below, prepared by the American Medical Association on health literacy. Does anything surprise you?
What's the different between Health Literacy and Health Information Literacy?
Health Literacy
Health Information Literacy
Health Literacy is the ability to read, understand, and act on health care information. Health literacy problems affect people from all backgrounds, especially those with chronic health problems. You cannot tell by looking who has low health literacy!
Health Information Literacy is the ability to recognize a health information need, search and evaluate information sources to retrieve relevant information and use the information to make good health decisions.
Health literacy is foundational to ensure the health care you receive will have a good outcome. Yet health literacy cannot be taken for granted. Consider this these statistics from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy Survey (NAAL, 2003), conducted by the National Institute for Literacy and the National Center for Education Statistics:
- 66% of United States Adults age 60 and over have inadequate or marginal literacy skills.
- 50% of welfare recipients read below fifth grade level.
- 50% of Hispanic Americans and 40% of African Americans have reading problems.
It is especially difficult for less literate patients to fill out intake forms, enroll in insurance programs, for which they may be eligible, get services once enrolled, follow medical instructions or give informed consent. Prescription labels and self-care instructions are among the most important written materials patients receive.
Why is health literacy important?
Only 13 percent of adults have Proficient health literacy, according to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Fourteen percent of adults (30 million people) have Below Basic health literacy. These adults were more likely to report their health as poor (42 percent) and are more likely to lack health insurance (28 percent) than adults with Proficient health literacy. Low literacy has been linked to poor health outcomes such as higher rates of hospitalization and less frequent use of preventive services. Both of these outcomes are associated with higher health care costs.
Who is at risk?
Populations most likely to experience low health literacy are older adults, racial and ethnic minorities, people with less than a high school degree or GED certificate, people with low income levels, non-native speakers of English, and people with compromised health status. Education, language, culture, access to resources, and age are all factors that affect a person's health literacy skills.
What can librarians and educators do to meet the needs of consumers/patrons who struggle with health literacy?
Medical professionals are responsible for assisting patients to make sure their health information is adequately and appropriately provided, and understood, in the practioner's office. Librarians can help support health literacy for patrons by providing access to reliable sources of information. Some good starting points are:
MedlinePlus, a collaboration of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus )
Another possibility suggested by Kovacs (2004) is library-provided web-based instruction for patrons who wish to utilize health information websites. In this way, instruction can be tailored to the learner group, and address questions and issues as they arise. Note that this does not involve teaching patrons about medical issues, but how to utilize an information tool.
Information professionals who may be addressing health information needs should be aware of health literacy issues. If you are interested, view this video below, prepared by the American Medical Association on health literacy. Does anything surprise you?
After you view the video, move on to Part 3 - Impact of Technology.